Tuesdays with Dorie - Swedish Visiting Cake

I saw my first hummingbird of the season this afternoon! I have had my feeders out since Monday of last week. And watching for hummingbirds every time I looked out the window. Which is a lot, as my window is at the kitchen sink and I spend a fair amount of time in my kitchen.  Actually the hubby saw it first. He was washing his hands at the sink and looking out the window and said "Hello Mr. Hummingbird". And, I said, "What! Really! There's a hummingbird out there?!" And, pushed him out of the way so I could see my first little guy of the season. I have been watching and watching, and nothing.  And, he sees one first. Hmmm. :]

Now that I have that out of the way, welcome to another addition of Tuesdays with Dorie. This week the recipe chosen was Swedish Visiting Cake and Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs  chose it.  Nancy has a great blog. She posts all kinds of wonderful recipes and always has "n.o.e's notes" in which she shares tips and/or changes she has made to the recipe to make them her own, and she always ends with "the verdict", sharing her opinion of the recipe. Not to mention the beautiful photos she shares of each dish she makes.

Nancy picked a real winner (at least in my opinion) with this cake. It was simple to put together. It baked quickly in a cast iron skillet. And, it was delicious! Chewy, moist, crispy, lemony, nutty, delicious!  I left it on the counter in the skillet and each time I happened by it in the kitchen, I cut off a small slice. And, another slice. And, another...and... suddenly it was all gone! Well, it took a couple of days before it was gone , but it was gone far too quickly for me. Fortunately it was easy to make. Extremely so. One bowl, one skillet. My kind of recipe. :)

Nine simple ingredients. Sugar, lemon zest, eggs, salt, vanilla and almond extracts (optional), flour, butter and almonds. I didn't have any usable lemons in the house. I had two, but they had been around long enough that they were more like little baseballs then lemons. So, I used some lemon extract in my sugar. I also added both the vanilla and the almond extracts. My skillet was a 10" instead of the 9" called for in the recipe, but I just baked my cake a few minutes less.

In the recipe Dorie states that her friend says you can start making this when you see guests coming up the road and be serving it when they are sitting down to coffee. That is not too far from the truth. I would say it took only 15 minutes max to mix the batter up and no more than 25 minutes to bake it. Within an hour, I was savoring the first of many slices of this wonderful, chewy, moist,crispy, lemony, nutty cake. (Is there an echo in here?)  And, you could be too! Head over to Nancy's blog for the recipe and swing by TWD and see who else baked this wonderful cake.

And, now, I want to thank Chaya of My Sweet and Savory for the sweet awards she gave to me on Friday the 9th. At least I think she passed them both on to me. :} I "met" Chaya several months ago when she invited me to join Have the Cake  and submit a Red Velvet cake I baked with SMS. She is one busy lady, involved with I don't know how many different blogs and she posts a fabulous recipe just about every day, with lots and lots of step by step photos. Always something yummy! She didn't say there was any rules about the awards or that you had to pass them on to a certain number of people, but I would like to pass them on to a few of my blogging friends.

First of all, Julie of Little bit of Everything. She and I have become friends and not only keep in touch via our blogs, but we email each other at least once a week. I always smile when I see a comment from Julie. Can't wait to hear about the cake classes Julie!

Michelle of Flourchild is another friend who makes me smile. Not only do we share a last name (Murphy) but it turns out both of us are married to men named Steven! We have to meet someday Michelle! I'm willing to come to Idaho for a visit. :)

Leslie, of Lethally Delicious is one of my friends from Tuesdays with Dorie (or was it Sweet Melissa Sundays where we met?). She always has something nice to say whenever she drops by (which is often). Thanks for being a friend,  Leslie.

Lastly, but not least,  is Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. I get a lot of artistic ideas from the fabulous pictures she takes, tons of yummy recipes to try that she has already tried, and, whenever she drops by my blog she always has something nice to say. I'm so glad we "met" Tracey!

Okay, that's it. I have to get to bed as I have three houses to clean tomorrow. And, when I get home, I have to start making 4 different fillings and 4 different cupcakes for a bride-to-be's cake tasting on Thursday. I have several recipes I have made in the past week, dinners and desserts that I want to post. I don't have to work at Starbuck's until Thursday night, so I am hoping I can post a little in the next day or two. :)